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06 March 2006

What's in your pocket? Or purses. Or backpacks. Or the thing you keep with you that has all the junk in it that you need to survive in the world. Why? Because its an excellent way to kill time and because you can never procrastinate too much (I am the Procrastinatrix and I think I have ADD).→[More:]

Here's whats in my purse:
  • wallet
  • keys (I have an impressive number of keys that makes me look like a janitor when I pull the whole ball out - its truly ridiculous)
  • cell phone
  • Tide stain-removey stick (because I'm a slob but don't want to appear so)
  • Barrel of Monkeys (good for situations where I have to wait)
  • mints(I have an addiction)
  • four kinds of lip balm (variety is the spice of life)
  • pen
  • iPod (music to block out the world)
  • proof of car insurance
  • wetnaps from various restaurants

Ummm....I think that's it.
post by: LunaticFringe at: 15:04 | 59 comments
Whoops...shoulda been a "more inside" in there.


Sorry

/embarrassed
posted by LunaticFringe 06 March | 15:05
wallet
directions to the apartment i didn't get
juror id card
paycheck stub
abou $2.50 in change
keys
posted by jonmc 06 March | 15:06
Always in pockets, front:

- Burt's Bees lip balm
- Several kleenexes in various stages of 'used'
- Cute little rock


Always in pockets, back:

- Driver's license
- Debit card

Often in pockets, front or back:

- Last week's grocery list
- Today's grocery list
- Various scraps of paper with illegible things written on them
- Miscellaneous things picked up from off the ground
posted by mudpuppie 06 March | 15:08
I hate having stuff in my pockets. My backpack is full of junk I never use. Well, some of it I do, but it's not exciting. Like a decoder ring or anything . . .
posted by tr33hggr 06 March | 15:12
Pants:
-Right Front: wallet, keys, 60 cents
-Left Front: cell telephone, work ID

Coat:
-Right: single AA battery
-Left: strand of curled purple ribbon

(I didn't buy a pair of gloves this winter. Instead, I walk around town with my hands in my coat pockets, twirling a battery in my right hand and a length of ribbon in my left. They take up about the same volume, but their mass is very different. I enjoy the textural differences between the two.)
posted by Hugh Janus 06 March | 15:13
I'm always carrying a book. Not always the same one, though.

I carry my camera whenever I can, but it's a bit heavy.

My DAP is always in my pocket.

Other than that, keys, change, the usual. Oh, and I keep a wristband-less watch in my inner coat pocket 24/7.
posted by selfnoise 06 March | 15:15
Most of what y'all have plus several knives, pencil stubs, a moleskine and a little screwdriver (if we are counting coats).
posted by Divine_Wino 06 March | 15:16
selfnoise: what's a DAP?
posted by LunaticFringe 06 March | 15:17
Usually, I just carry wallet in my back pocket, my cell phone, and keys. And a tissue in my front pocket. I have never gotten into the whole purse thing, unless I'm on a trip or someplace where I need to carry more than those few things. I hate excess baggage.
posted by amro 06 March | 15:17
carry my wallet
posted by amro 06 March | 15:18
lunaticfringe - Digital Audio Player. Also known as an MP3 player, Ipod, etc.

Mine's an Iaudio U2. It's in my pocket so much that I forget to charge it, and then I feel pretty stupid. I actually attached the USB-to-mini converter to my keychain, but that doesn't seem to help.
posted by selfnoise 06 March | 15:19
Like tr33, I hate pocket clutter, and carry only essentials. Wallet and keys (which are removed anytime I am seated), a small amount of change, chapstick, and my nano.
posted by mike9322 06 March | 15:20
Purse:
keys
cel phone
camera
notebook
pen
change
cigarettes
lighter
lipstick
chapstick
hairbrush
compact of makeup I never use
altoids tin containing aspirin, ibuprofen, xantac and 2 xanax
bottle of eyedrops
altoids tin containing altoids
hand lotion
old grocery lists
old coupons
$2 just floating around (cool! Glad I checked!)
checkbook
business cards in creepy little "silver" card holder
ricola coughdrops
about $2 in change
miscellaneous crumpled receipts

Sometimes I leave the purse at home & just take wallet, keys, celphone, lipstick. Camera if it's daylight.
posted by mygothlaundry 06 March | 15:21
Oh, if we are counting messenger bags (or man purses or whatever) I've got a book called "Smart Handicapping Made Easy" (horseracing), two MFK Fisher books, three flashlights, a crapload of loose paper and junk, a box cutter, a little bottle of mouthwash and an emergency toothache repair kit (oil of cloves, Der Weiße Engel!) and a copy of Footfall by Niven and Pournelle, that I was sorta re-reading and then I don't know if I want to.
posted by Divine_Wino 06 March | 15:23
A sampling of items in my man-purse right now:
* hat & gloves
* 4 different maps of Toronto
* Travel pack of band-aids
* cellphone
* a film canister full of shoelaces
* a film cansiter full of change (big, muscular canadian change mind you, there's like 30 bucks in there)
* 3 pens, two working, one not
* swiss army knife, toothpick missing.

posted by Capn 06 March | 15:25
I currently have a little plastic bag full of loose-leaf black tea in my bag. Which I had forgotten about, until just now.
posted by selfnoise 06 March | 15:26
...all that junk inside your trunk
posted by pieisexactlythree 06 March | 15:27
Today, whilst I'm wearing my carpenter pants...

Left pocket:
- wallet
- digital camera (Canon SD400)

Right pocket:
- keys
- pen
- assorted coinage

Tool pocket (down near my right knee):
- cellphone

Back right pocket:
- weekly calendar
posted by me3dia 06 March | 15:29
Trousers, front right: Lidls receipt, 16 pounds (got some good stuff incl. black forest ham, feta in chile oil, tortellini w. prosciutto, pepperoncini, and smoked salmon)

Trousers, back left: Ripped in half project proposal, Palestinian House of Friendship radio station (recycled, must have written an email address on half of it)

Trousers, change pocket: Jump drive, 128mb

Trousers, front left: Keys w. torch

Jacket, left: iPod mini, 4 gigs, almost full
posted by By the Grace of God 06 March | 15:30
I forgot my swiss army knife. It goes with me most places because its just so damned useful.
posted by LunaticFringe 06 March | 15:32
Left front:
small binder clip with $16 clipped therein

Right front:
Fisher space pen
Keys

Left rear:
empty

Right rear:
ID, bank card, credit card

In other words, i carry nothing interesting in my pockets.
posted by dersins 06 March | 15:32
front right: passcard, listerine strips
back right: wallet
wallet: 3 coupons for the movies, random wallet stuff, no cash
small-of-back: liner-lock folding knife
back left: empty
front left: cellphone, mp3 player
calf left: 2 packs of smokes
calf right: PDA
marsupial pouch: four 3 week old hatchlings
jacket inside: half-a-pack o' smokes, lip balm, rotring collapsable pen
jacket left: camera
jacket right: lighter, keys, swisstech pliers
posted by porpoise 06 March | 15:42
Oh yeah, my inside coat pocket contains Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor, the second volume of memoirs from his walk through Central Europe in the early-mid-30's. The first volume, A Time of Gifts, in which he marches from Holland to the Austro-Hungarian border, was one of the best books I've read this year. The second one so far doesn't disappoint, and he's only in Romania. I first heard of Fermor reading Ill Met by Moonlight, another tremendous story.

As a companion volume to Fermor's travels, I've been reading Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends, by Lonnie Johnson. It's terrific.
posted by Hugh Janus 06 March | 15:44
Keys, and my hopes and dreams.
posted by King of Prontopia 06 March | 15:52
Hugh
Those books look FRESH!
posted by Divine_Wino 06 March | 15:53
Oh right, my manpurse soft leather briefcase:

Assorted scientific papers.
Papers (aka "rollies")
Lip balm
USB cable for Mp3 player, USB cable for camera
Retractable ethernet cable
Assorted random cables (that I can't remember what they're for)
Lighter
Rechargeable AAA batteries
Hardcase for 'shades
Tiny little collapsable umbrella
Bottle of water (refilled from a Brita)
Random pens & a Zebra M402 mechanical pencil
Assorted change
Moleskine
Two 2-saltine saltine packs
posted by porpoise 06 March | 15:58
Divine_Wino, they're so good, man. I'll give you the first one when I get a chance if you wanna read it.

There's this scene where he goes to the Hofbrau house in Munich (can you believe it? I just typoed "Muncie") and enters room after room of fat burghers, Nazi higher-ups, soldiers, and SS men before he finds his destination, the giant common-room at the back, full of stout workers and peasants; he drinks two beers, passes out, and is carried to a blacksmith's barn in a wheelbarrow, where he wakes up the next morning. I'm not giving anything away by telling you what happens -- it's like Suetonius or something. It's incredible.
posted by Hugh Janus 06 March | 16:01
My murse is due for a cleaning, so this is timely.

Front pocket:
*travel corkscrew (because you never know)
*sleep mask (ditto, although it's really just left over from the last time I traveled
*Blistex
*Tums
*yellow highlighter that leaked
*daytime allergy medicine (OTC)

Inside:
*magazines (currently - Mojo, Harp, Wine & Spirits). I live in fear of running out of reading material.
*book (currently - Sleeping Where I Fall, Peter Coyote's autobiography. Science Girl's family used to own the property in Olema, CA, where Mr. Coyote lived for a period as part of a commune. She contacted him in search of information about the time he spent there, and he was kind enough to inscribe a copy of his book and send it to her.)
*notebook
*datebook
*press kit for and promo copy of Band of Horses' Everything All The Time (I've only listened to it once, but it's not bad)
*Red Cross first aid/CPR booklet (again, because you never know)
*a Bill Evans compilation disc I put together
*a broken dog biscuit
*various plastic shopping bags (for picking up after the dog on those occasions when I bring her to work.)

Back Pocket:
*receipt for rental car from recent trip
*claim check for baggage from same trip
*receipt from Sonic Boom Records
*brochure from Vino Noceto, one of my favorite wineries
*confirmations of e-tickets and car rental from trip
*three floppy discs bearing various reviews I've written & other effluvia
*partial pkg. of Ricola

Various other pockets:
*paycheck stubs
*case for reading glasses
posted by bmarkey 06 March | 16:03
I'm fascinated that you have Barrel of Monkeys in your handbag, lunaticfringe. You spill them out and start making monkey chains? You must be popular with kids in waiting rooms.
posted by iconomy 06 March | 16:08
Let's see, in my man bag:
1. My knitting (don't leave home without it)
2. Book: Open To Desire Mark Epstein, M.D.
3. Steno pad 'cause if I don't write things down they fall out my ears
4. Wallet - actually a silver cigarette case with my cards and lists
5. Nano and ear buds
6. Vile of anthrax
7. Several pens and pencils
8. A few just in case dollars.
posted by jelly 06 March | 16:10
I'm kinda frightening (don't know why - I look normal enough) so kids don't come and bug me much but I do enjoy the Monkeys. And they're only the pocket-sized set which makes it all the harder since the monkeys are so tiny (a monkey can fit inside a penny). The hardest place I've played is on the subway. Hard to be precise when you're being tossed around like a sock in the dryer.

The pub is my favourite place to bust out the monkeys though. Then we all play and try to beat each other. The last monkey out is the trickiest. The beer makes it more of a challenge.

I
posted by LunaticFringe 06 March | 16:17
Where'd the rest of my post go? It said:

I *heart* Monkeys!
posted by LunaticFringe 06 March | 16:20
Remind me to accept no mail from jelly.
posted by amro 06 March | 16:22
I like to travel lightly through life, and have always detested carrying a purse. Thanks to this wonderful messenger bag (made here in Portsmouth, and de rigeur), I can keep the barest essentials handy while still sashaying along hands-free and happy-go-lucky. So, it normally contains:

-Planner
-leather-covered letter-size notebook/folio thing
-4 pens: I like the uniball Signo and the JetStream
-mints or gum
-1 Kashi bar for emergency food supply
-girly emergency kit (tampax, ibuprofen)
-wallet
-cell

And optional gear:
-whatever book or periodical I'm reading at the moment. The last couple weeks it's been Larry McMurtry's rumination on Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley, called The Colonel and Little Missie.
-Hardcover, spiral-bound sketchbook. I so prefer these to the moleskin, because when opened, they lie flat.
-tin of 10 colored pencils.

And what I don't have:
-Cigarettes
-lighter or matches
...both of which I was burdened with never forgetting for 15 years. Not smoking is easier! Less clutter.
posted by Miko 06 March | 16:22
≡ Click to see image ≡

Thank you for fixing the "more inside" thing!
posted by LunaticFringe 06 March | 16:24
I'm not particularly religious, but I carry a bottle of Holy Water that I was given just in case I have to deal with some demons or vampires.
posted by krix 06 March | 16:24
DAMN Miko, now I'm gonna have to get ANOTHER messenger bag!
posted by jelly 06 March | 16:26
I'm not particularly religious, but I carry a bottle of Holy Water that I was given just in case I have to deal with some demons or vampires.

It also works on Unitarians.
posted by Divine_Wino 06 March | 16:28
I'm surprised you don't already have one! They should issue the damn things to newcomers at the Hampton tolls.
posted by Miko 06 March | 16:28
(mine's too small for all my notions)
posted by jelly 06 March | 16:31
*wallet
*hello kitty checkbook cover/checks
*pepperspray
*lipstick
*three kinds of eyeliner
*lip gloss
*chap stick
*hairbrush
*perfume
*pile o' papers (reciepts, pay stubs, atm slips, etc)
*generic "airborne"
*vics inhaler
*cough drops
*keys on a ralph wiggum chain
*hand lotion
*business cards in a badtz maru holder
*teeny picture frame with my name on it that was a placeholder at a bridal shower a couple weeks ago
*condoms
*"feminine" items
*mints
*tweezers
*mp3 player
*phone

I need to clean this thing out!
posted by kellydamnit 06 March | 16:42
A small unassuming gold ring that seems unnaturally heavy for it's size and which is quite precious to me.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs 06 March | 16:47
What's in my purse? Off the top of my head...

*wallet
*coin purse
*keys
*cell phone in cute cell phone holder
*four or five different kinds of lip gloss/lip balm
*checkbook
*calendar
*business card holder
*small bottle of Ibuprofen
*spare brain (actually it's a keychain with a squishy brain on it - stress ball kind of material. My mom got it at a psychology conference and I adopted it)
*a couple packs of gum
*about four or five different pens
*package of Oral B Brush Ups
*my Metra Monthly pass with Link-Up (allows me to ride Pace buses any time and CTA buses/trains during rush hour)
*my Chicago Card (for riding the CTA during non-rush hours)
*random scraps of paper
posted by sisterhavana 06 March | 16:52
Am I the only person who carries a knife?
posted by porpoise 06 March | 17:06
keychain [with attached swiss army knife, half of which has broken]
wallet
cellphone
thumbdrive

if messenger bag is present then also
moleskine
fountain pen
laptop
camera
posted by sciurus 06 March | 17:11
porpoise: I come from a long line of knife-carryers. My father always has a knife, as does my brother, and as did my grandfather. There is something wonderfully manly about it.

Despite the manliness, I myself carried a knife all the time until 9/11. When I was in outdoor education, it was indispensible. When I worked aboard tall ships, it was required. When I started working in 'real'jobs, I still carried the mini Victorinox Swiss Army on my keychain.

After 9/11, I started finding the knife a hassle. Going through metal detectors at the airport, museums, and even at the county and state fairs, I was forever having to disengage my knife from my keychain and bring it back to the car or face confiscation. So I kind of gave up on it for a while.

But I'm constantly wishing I had one -- for opening a CD, cutting a loose thread from clothing, or slicing through tape on a package.
posted by Miko 06 March | 17:12
There is a small penknife/bottle opener on my keyring. I've had some of the same problems as miko in that regard, but I feel naked without it.

Also, forgot to mention the pen inside the notebook. For you completists out there.
posted by bmarkey 06 March | 17:32
What I actually usually have in my pockets:

Swiss Army "Champ" Knife
About twenty keys
Wallet
Small tin of altoids
Cellphone
Snap-on sunglasses

Frequently in my pockets:

1 gig flash mp3 player
little pill thingy with imodium advanced (yeah, I have to carry the fucking things with me)

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 06 March | 17:38
I used to have an adorable little red swiss army knife on my keychain but I had to put it away after too many problems getting through security in various places.
posted by matildaben 06 March | 17:40
mgl does that thing qualify as a carry on?

I carry as little as possible at all times. If it's cigar season, I stick one in my sock. I have a skinny travel wallet I carry in a front pocket. cell gets clipped to my waist, keys in other front pocket. Keyring has essential bottle opener. Only other thing that I randomly carry is a memory stick.
posted by chewatadistance 06 March | 17:47
Right coat pocket without zipper: Metropass, kleenex, various receipts/grocery lists, pens, the occasional crochet hook, keys to house and offices (2 part-time jobs = 5 keys!?), chapstick (Labello).

Right coat pocket with zipper: old concert tickets, old Metropasses, wallet, yet more receipts and notes (book recommendations, phone numbers, directions, etc.), IKEA measuring tape.

Left coat pocket without zipper: toque, pad of paper, chapstick (Dove), pen.

Left coat pocket with zipper: iPod.

Random pockets in backpack: "feminine paper,"* tylenol, nalgene, a rapidly diminishing number of pens, agenda, spoon, fork, post-its, tea bags.

*"Feminine paper" is my new favourite euphemism. My friends have to sit through me gushing (heh) at the drugstore, "Check out all this paper! It's so feminine!"
posted by heatherann 06 March | 18:24
≡ Click to see image ≡
baccy, phone, wallet, notebook, money.
posted by seanyboy 06 March | 20:01
Also, keys + ipod + pen.
posted by seanyboy 06 March | 20:02
I don't usually carry a purse. Just a little coin purse/key chain that holds my $, license and credit cards. It's got a monkey on it. (Paul Frank's Julius.)

Everything else stays in my car, which is a total freakin'pig sty.
posted by jrossi4r 06 March | 20:11
Am I the only person who carries a knife?
Did you miss me? I have at least three and a box cutter (sometimes I cut boxes for work) all the time.
posted by Divine_Wino 06 March | 20:49
Purse:
-regular wallet
-US money wallet
-passport (I go to the US frequently and don't want to forget it)
-gloves (soon to be removed)
-cell phone
-pouch w/femme hygiene stuff
-hairbrush
-pen
-note pad
-address book
-gum
-calculator
-generic Pepcid
-lipstick
-Burt's Bees lip balm
-tape measure
-lotion
-Excedrin Migraine
-eyedrops for allergies
posted by deborah 06 March | 22:25
Oh, and I usually have a book with me.
posted by deborah 06 March | 22:28
Whoops! Sorry Divine_W.

It's a little disturbing that the current paranoid US environment is taking tools away from people. I wonder what it's doing to the concealed carry crowd.

Random story; I used to "teach" a "biotech outreach" class at UBC - biology grad students present "biotechnology" to highschool student from around the city and the province.

One class was from a small town in the interior of BC. There was this robust but really cute young (underaged) lady who sported a really nice tooled-horn/bone-scaled brass-furnished backlock folder in the hip pocket of her jeans.

After the lunch break, she comes back without the knife... during a lull period I asked her about it and she was really defensive at first; "oh, it's not for hurting anyone or anything."

I ask to see her knife, admire it (it was a very well crafted pocketknife), showed her mine, then laugh over how non-knife people were just so paranoid and how one doesn't realize how useful a knife is until they don't have one around.

All the while having my (cute, petite, flighty, sheltered lady) co-teacher stare daggers at me. I didn't have the wits (guts?) to ask her why, at the time.
posted by porpoise 07 March | 01:39
I have a few nice knives, but mostly I buy just buy cheapos on the assumption that I am going to lose them, go somewhere where they won't let me have them and have to throw them out and so on. Things need cutting though. All I'm sayin'.
posted by Divine_Wino 07 March | 15:50
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